The Emoji Movie
The Emoji Movie, originally known as Emoji Movie: Express Yourself, is a computer-animated adventure romantic comedy-drama science-fiction film focusing on the world of emoticons. The film was directed by Tony Leondis, who also co-wrote the film alongside Mike White and Eric Siegel. The film is produced by Sony Pictures Animation, and was released on July 28, 2017. − − Synopsis − The film centers on Gene, a multi-expressional emoji, as he sets out on a journey along with Hi-5 the hand emoji and a code-breaker emoji, Jailbreak, to become a normal "Meh" emoji, like his parents. − "Plot" − Prolouge − Textopolis is a digital city run by the famous emoji, Smiler, whose job is CEO of an emoji company, the Cube, inside the phone of a boy named Alex. There are old emojis, new emojis, fat emojis and skinny emojis. − The Journey Begins − − Gene is an emoji, the son of two "Meh" emojis, Mel and Mary. Despite his parents attempts at raising him to be a "Meh", Gene is able to make multiple expressions. At first, his parents, especially his father, are hesitant of him going to work, but Gene insists, claiming that he will finally be normal and useful to society. − − In the human world, upon receiving a text from his crush Addie, Alex decides to send her an emoji. When Gene is selected, he panics, which makes his odd facial problems spring to life. After making a confusing expression before wrecking the text center, Gene is called in by Smiler, a smiley emoji, the self-claimed first emoji, and leader of the text center, who concludes that Gene is a "malfunction" and therefore must be deleted. − − Gene sinks into depression, going up to the top of the company building, where his parents, concerned for his safety, tell him that he should lock himself in their apartment until everybody almost forgets about what happened. Gene then accuses them of being embarrassed of him and, in a fit of anger, tells them that he isn't going to run away from what he did, instead going down to try to reason with the Board. − − He gets there as the board meeting ends, and nobody will tell him what was decided. Smiler calls him in, telling him that he doesn't have to worry about making that mistake again because he will be deleted. After calling the bots to delete him, Gene distracts them and manages to escape, but he is chased by Anti-virus bots. − The Journey to Dropbox − − Hi-5, an emoji that has been demoted from the favorites, rescues Gene from the Anti-virus bots, but thinks they're after him for sneaking back into the Favorite's Lounge. After being taken down to the "Loser's Lounge, Gene explains that it was him the bots were after, not Hi-5. When asked why, Gene reluctantly tells the hand that he is a malfunction that Smiler wants to delete. Hi-5 tells Gene that he can be fixed if they find a hacker, recommending one named Jailbreak. Convinced he can become a favorite again, Hi-5 accompanies him. − − When Smiler finds out that Gene has left Textopolis, she sends more bots to look for Gene, having some tail his parents, who go searching for him when they've realized that he skipped town. Meanwhile, Gene's actions have caused Alex to think that his phone needs to be fixed, prompting him to schedule an appointment with the phone store to have his phone wiped. − − Gene and Hi-5 come to a piracy app where they meet Jailbreak, who wants to reach Dropbox so that she can live in the cloud. The trio is attacked by Smiler's bots, but manage to escape into the game Candy Crush. Jailbreak reveals that Gene can be fixed in the cloud, and the group goes off into the Just Dance app. While there, Jailbreak is revealed to be a princess emoji who fled home after tiring of being stereotyped. They are once again attacked by bots, and their actions cause Alex to delete the Just Dance app. Gene and Jailbreak escape, but Hi-5 is taken along with the app and ends up in the trash. − − Mel and Mary go searching for Gene and have a very lethargic argument. They make up in the Instagram app when Mel reveals that he, too, is a malfunction, explaining Gene's behavior, while Smiler betrays Poop and the other emoji while being hired as CEO of the Cube and ruling with an evil smile and while traveling through Spotify, Jailbreak admits that she likes Gene just the way he is, and that he should not be ashamed of his malfunction. They make it to the trash and rescue Hi-5, but are soon attacked by an upgraded bot. They evade it and enter Dropbox, where they encounter a firewall. − Gene the Hero − − The gang get past it with a password being Addie's name and make it to the cloud, where Jailbreak prepares to reprogram Gene. Gene admits his feelings for Jailbreak, but she wishes to stick to her plan of venturing into the cloud, unintentionally causing Gene to revert to his apathetic programming out of heartbreak. The upgraded bot takes Gene, and Hi-5 and Jailbreak race after them on a Twitter bird summoned by Jailbreak. − − As Smiler prepares to delete Gene, Mel and Mary arrive and are also threatened. Jailbreak and Hi-5 arrive and disable the bot, which falls on top of Smiler. Alex has since taken his phone to the store and asks to have his phone erased to fix the problem. Out of desperation, Gene prepares to have himself texted to Addie, making numerous faces to express himself. Realizing that Addie received a text from him, Alex stops his phone from getting erased, saving the emoji and finally getting to speak with Addie. Gene accepts himself for who he is and is celebrated by all of the emojis while Poop returns to his job as CEO of the Cube after arresting Smiler. − − In a mid-credits scene, Smiler is arrested in the "loser lounge" with the other forgotten and unused emotions for her crimes, wearing numerous braces due to her teeth being cracked by the bot, and playing and losing a game of Go Fish. − − Cast − * T.J. Miller as Gene, an outsider emoji who can show multiple expressions. * James Corden as Hi-5, a hand emoji. * Anna Faris as Jailbreak, a codebreaker/princess emoji. * Maya Rudolph as Smiler, a smiley emoji who destroys Alex's phone. * Steven Wright as Mel Meh, Gene's emoji father. * Jennifer Coolidge as Mary Meh, Gene's emoji mother. * Patrick Stewart as Poop, a poop emoji and the CEO of the Cube. * Christina Aguliera as Akiko Glitter, a super cool dancer that lives inside the Just Dance app * Sofia Vergara as Flamenca, a flamenco dancer emoji. * Sean Hayes as Steven, a devil emoji. * Rachel Ray as Spam, a spam message. * Jeff Rossas as an Internet Troll. * Jake T. Austin as Alex, a human who owns a phone where Gene and his friends live. * Tati Gabrielle as Addie McAlister, Alex's crush. Production − In July 21, 2015, Sony Pictures Animation won a bidding war against Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures for the rights to develop an animated film centered around emojis. Michelle Raimo Kouyate signed on to produce the film. At 2016 CinemaCon, the film was officially announced and it was revealed that it would be set in the digital world inside a smartphone. − − In July 2016, T. J. Miller was announced as lead emoji Gene in a tweet by Sony Pictures Animation on World Emoji Day. In October 2016, it was announced that Ilana Glazer and James Corden will be joining the cast as well. In December 2016, the film's title was renamed from Emoji Movie: Express Yourself, to simply The Emoji Movie. Glazer was later replaced by Anna Faris. − Music − For the movie, Ricky Reed recorded the song "Good Vibrations". − Release − Box Office − The film was released on July 28, 2017 in the United States and with a projected gross of $20–30 million from 4,069 theaters in its opening weekend. It was also released on the same date as Atomic Blonde. − − Reception − Critics panned The Emoji Movie, calling it "unfunny and a waste of time". As of September 17, 2017 on, the film has an approval rating of 9% based on 104 reviews, with an of 2.7/10. Overall, the film has a score of 12 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. − − David Ehrlich of gave the film a D, writing: "Make no mistake, The Emoji Movie is very, very, very bad (we're talking about a hyperactive piece of corporate propaganda in which Spotify saves the world and Sir Patrick Stewart voices a living turd), but real life is just too hard to compete with right now." of was also critical of the film, calling it "a soul-crushing disaster because it lacks humor, wit, ideas, visual style, compelling performances, a point of view or any other distinguishing characteristic that would make it anything but a complete waste of your time". − − Glen Kenny of described the film as "nakedly idiotic", stating that the film plays off a Hollywood idea that the "panderingly, trendily idiotic can be made to seem less so". of lambasted the film as "hectic situational overkill" and "lazy" while viciously criticizing the film, writing: "There have been worse ideas, but in this case the execution isn't good enough to bring the notion of an emoji movie to funky, surprising life." Writing in , Charles Bramesco called the film "insidious evil" and wrote that it was little more than an exercise in smartphone downloads to children. − − Gallery Promotional Character Posters emoji_movie_ver5_xlg.jpg emoji_movie_ver5_xlg.jpg emoji_movie_ver4_xlg.jpg emoji_movie_ver3_xlg.jpg emoji_movie_ver2_xlg.jpg